The Sound Of Running is the running blog of Marcus Ryder it accompanies the audio diary; audioboo.fm/TheSoundOfRunning and twitter feed of @RunningRyder. It charts the thoughts, musings and life of a keen amateur runner who is trying to figure out why he runs and why he loves it.
Warning: this blog will not make you a faster runner, slimmer or fitter. But hopefully it will make you think.

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

"Sponsor Me" the two hardest words

The London Marathon is less than three weeks away and after
all the training here comes the difficult part:

Asking for sponsorship money.

In the last two weeks I have really upped my marathon
training.

On a Monday I do speed interval work alternating between
fast and slow running clocking 15kms in an hour.

On a Tuesday I do sprint hill training (for just half an
hour) along with stretches.

On Wednesdays I run a half marathon

On Thursdays I do the sprint hill training again

On a Friday I go back to my 15kms of speed interval work

On a Saturday I do a long trail run of about 20 miles

And on a Sunday I rest.

For most normal people this would sound a bit excessive to
say the least and non-runners I’ve spoken to seem to think this all sounds a
bit too much like hard work. But I’ve built up to this routine slowly and even
though it can be hard to get out of bed on a cold morning I don’t find it that
difficult.

What I find difficult is asking people for money. I’m running the London marathon
for a small charity called the Jack and Ada Beattie Foundation. They are a
small charity that gives out grants to people in crisis or real need (you can
check out the work they do here http://www.beattiefoundation.com/
). I’ve known that I’ve been running for a little while now but I have kept
putting off asking people to sponsor me.

I’m not sure why I hate asking people to sponsor me so much. Maybe it’s
because I don’t like asking people for favours or I don’t like imposing on
people. Whatever it is I find running 40 to 50 miles a week easier than sending
out a simple email.

However now I have sent out the email to friends and family asking for
sponsorship I have found people’s response really positive. And it even
motivates me more to train even harder knowing that I am doing it for a good
cause and that other people want me to succeed.

I just wish I had asked for people’s money earlier.

(The picture today is of a flyer for the charity's last event - a Valentine's Dinner of "unloved" food that has been thrown away to highlight all the people going hungry while food is being wasted)

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About Me

I am a keen amateur runner. I love running but I'm more interested in what running can help me discover about myself and life than what I can tell the world about running. Running is not simply putting one foot in front of the other as fast and for as long as possible any more than meditation is simply closing your eyes sitting cross legged on the floor